Sooty Tern

The Sooty Tern is one of the most oceanic of all terns, spending years at sea without ever landing on water, only coming ashore to breed in vast, noisy colonies on remote tropical islands. Its distinctive dark-and-white plumage and constant, buoyant flight make it a familiar sight to sailors and seabird watchers alike.

Appearance

Adults have blackish-brown upperparts and a sharply contrasting white forehead patch, white underparts, and a deeply forked black tail. The bill and legs are black, and in flight the long, pointed wings appear entirely dark above.

Key field marks

• Blackish-brown upperparts contrasting sharply with white underparts
• White forehead patch that does not extend behind the eye (unlike the Bridled Tern)
• Deeply forked black tail
• Long, pointed wings and strong, direct flight far from land
• Rarely settles on the water

Similar species

The Sooty Tern is most easily confused with the Bridled Tern, which is paler grey-brown above (not blackish) and has a white forehead patch that extends as a thin line behind the eye, along with a pale collar on the hindneck.

Habitat and range

Sooty Terns range across tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide, breeding in enormous, densely packed colonies on remote islands, atolls, and cays largely free of ground predators. Non-breeding birds and juveniles remain almost entirely at sea, sometimes for years, ranging widely across ocean basins.

Major colonies occur on islands in the tropical Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, with birds dispersing widely between breeding seasons.

Behavior

Sooty Terns feed on the wing, dipping down to snatch small fish and squid from the surface, often in association with schools of predatory fish such as tuna that drive prey to the surface. They rarely rest on the water, instead remaining airborne for extended periods.

Voice

The call is a distinctive, far-carrying "wide-awake" cry, which has earned the species the nickname "wideawake tern" in some regions.

Nesting and breeding

Sooty Terns nest in enormous, densely packed ground colonies, sometimes numbering hundreds of thousands of pairs, laying a single egg in a shallow scrape. Colonies are extremely noisy and synchronized breeding helps overwhelm predators.